Lint remover for knitting machines



Jan. 16, 1951 w, s, SHARP 2,538,659

LINT REMOVER FOR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Sept. 8, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 K \H \NvgNmR 2 4 \AsLLmM SHERMAN 514m? N ms Patented Jan. 16, 1951 UNITED STATES QFFECE LINT REMOVER FOR KNITTING MACHINES William Sherman Sharp, Yankee Spring Iiownship, Barry County, Mich, assignor of one-half to Harold E. Sharp, Middleville, Mich.

Application September 8, 1947, Serial No. 772,619

4 Claims.

/ to the needles is made up of fibers, and in the operation of knitting, fibers are loosened from the yarn and separated therefrom to collect at or in back of the thread guides, with an accumuthe machine is in operation, and may be made to occur once with each rotation of the cylinder *of the machine, or more frequently in such rotation is a more frequent removal of the lint by projection of air under pressure against it is desired.

An understanding of the invention may be had from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a circular knitting machine having my invention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged elevation of the mechanism at one of a plurality .of knitting stations around the dial of the machine, at each of which air under pressure is to be periodically projected against lint at the back of the thread guide at each of said-knitting stations.

Fig. .3 is a plan view of the structure shown in Fig. l, and

Fig. 4 is afragmentary enlarged elevation illustrating the mechanism used for controlling and periodically projecting compressed air at the knitting stations.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawings.

The circular knitting machine is a well known structure. Enough of it is illustrated and described herein to show the environment of the invention and how it is used and attached to the knitting machine.

In the circular knitting machine, an outer fixed frame includes upper and lower rings 5 and 2 spaced from each other and connected by vertical plates 3. Within the rings the cylinder of the machine, which is turned rapidly about a vertical axis is mounted for rotation. It includes a lower ring '1 within the fixed frame ring 2 and an upper ring 5. Rings 4 and 5 are connected by vertical connections 6 so that both upper and lower rings move together. The cylindrical needles of the machine are indicated at I, at the inner side .of the upper ring 5 .of the cylinder.

These cooperate with dial needles carried on a circular dial 3 horizontally located within and in a plane above the upper ring 5.

In the structure of the machine at a plurality of spaced distances around the .dial plate 8, brackets 9, with guide eyes therein for guiding the yarn or thread going to the machine, are fixed, and in association with each is a thread guide l0 disposed in proper relation to the needles at the inner side of the upper cylindrical ring 5 and near the meeting ends of the series of needles on the cylinder and dial.

Such structure of a circular knitting machine is old and well known, and the detail of structure and how it is operated need not be further described, as all skilled in the art are familiar with it. It is enough to say that the cylinder, and the needles carried thereby, is rotated rapidly within the outer frame rings i and 2, and the thread at the several stations is guided to and is received by the needles so that a continuous cylindrical knitted web is produced in the machine operation.

During such knitting lint from the thread collects in bunches back of the thread guides E0. The present invention is directed to simply, readily, easily and automatically remove said lint before it can collect in any considerable quantities.

dial, the arms being supported at their outer ends by vertical posts [2 connected to the upper frame ring I as shown. Such spider and posts l2 in practice may be a part of a circular knitting machine. But if in some makes of such knitting machines they are not present, they are readily supplied to serve as a support for a tubular manifold I3, of ring shape, preferably, which is fixed to and carried at the upper side of the spider.

From the manifold l3, outlet tubes [4, connected thereto at their upper ends, extend outwardly and downwardly, and at their lower free ends are each equipped with an air-passing nozzle l5 (Fig. 2). Such nozzles are located directly adjacent the thread guides IE! and the tubes I i are curved and shaped as shown so that air passing from the nozzles is directed in horizontal paths at the back of the thread guides against any lint there collected. There is one of the tubes l4 for,

each of the thread guides as shown.

The tubular manifold 53 is supplied with compressed air through an inlet supply pipe it which extends downwardly at the outer side of the machine and at its lower end is connected with a valve housing [1. Compressed air from any suitable source thereof is carried to the housing i'i through a pipe it. If there was no control for the air within the housing ll, it would flow continuously from the nozzles 55.

The air is controlled within the housing H by a valve which has a stem l9 extending below the lower side of such valve housing. The valve housing is carried on a bracket 29 secured to the lower frame ring 2. At the under side of the housing ll an L-shaped bracket 2! is secured, at the lower end of which a horizontal bar 22 is pivotally connected at one end. This bar, between its ends, extends across the lower end of the valve stem 19. At its free end bar 22 has a horizontal roller 23 which extends across the upper side of the lower ring 4 of the cylinder. At the upper side of the ring 4 a block 24 is secured, which has an inclined upper side.

When, in the rotation of the cylinder, the ring moving in a counter-clockwise direction, the thinner end of the block 24 comes to the roller 23, it moves thereunder and the roller rides upwardly on the inclined upper side of said block, lifting the valve stem 59 momentarily, or until said cam block 24 has passed by the roller 23. During such momentary lifting of the valve stem 19 and the valve connected therewith, there is a passage of compressed air from the outer supply pipe 1 8, through the housing ll, the pipe IE to the manifold l3, and thereupon through all of the nozzle pipes I4. When this occurs, air is momentarily projected outward from each of the nozzles 55. This blows any collected lint away. As each of the knitting stations is provided with a nozzle i5,

all of the lint at all of said stations is speedily removed by the compressed air against.

It is of course obvious that more than one of the valve lifting blocks 2 2 may be connected with the lower ring 4 of the cylinder, so that instead of the air being projected to blow the lint away once with each cylinder rotation, such lint may be jets coming thereblown two or more times during each rotation of the cylinder. However, I have found in practice that the lint removal once during each cylinder rotation is all that is generally required.

The attachment described consists of few parts which may be made and installed readily and economically. The tubes is being bendable, the

nozzles l5 may be located at the best places to thereof.

4 I claim: 1. In a structure as described, a circular tubular manifold adapted to be mounted at the upper of a circular knitting machine, a plurality o tubular outlets connected with said manifold spaced from each other around the manifold, each outlet tube being arranged to extend to a knitting station of a circular knitting machine back of the thread guide therein, a tubular inlet connected with the manifold adapted to extend downwardly to the lower portion of the frame of a circular knitting machine, a valve housing connected to the lower end of said inlet tube, means for supplying compressed air to said valve housing, a movable stem extending below the valve housing, upward movement of which opens a passage for compressed air through said tubular inlet to the manifold and thence out through the outlet tubes, and a lever pivotally mounted at one end carried by said valve housing and extending underneath said stem, upper movement of the lever Opening passage in the valve housing for flow of compressed air.

2. A structure as defined in claim 1, and a roller connectedto the other end of said lever extending laterally therefrom and adapted to lie over the upper side of the lower member of the rotating cylinder of a circular knitting machine, and an inclined cam member adapted to contact said roller member to ride underneath and momentarily lift said roller with each rotation of the cylinder.

3. The combination with a knitting machine having a rotary member of a lint remover comprising, a hollow manifold, a plurality of tubular outlets connected to said manifold and each extending to knitting station of the machine, a

conduit connecting said manifold with a' source of I compressed air, a valve in said conduit and means on the rotary member for periodically opening said valve in timed relation to the rotation 4. The combination with a knitting machine having needles, a rotary needle operating member and a plurality of thread guides, of a hollow manifold, a plurality of tubular outlets extending from said manifold, one to each of said thread guides and each having a nozzle directed between a respective thread guide and the adjacent needles, and means to pass compressed air through said manifold and outlets and from said nozzles.

WILLIAM SHERMAN SHARP.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,325,023 Allred July 27, 1943 2,357,714 Vossen et al Sept. 5, 1944 2,422,514 Allen June 17, 1947 

